After the last 15 to 18 months, everyone has their own criteria as to when 'normalcy' is established. For some, it never went away. For others it will never return. For me, there was at least two days that I have circled. The first day on the return to normalcy for me was mid-May, which was two weeks after my second shot. The next day is today. My first airshow since the Reno Air races in September of 2019. I'm sure there will be more stages in the return, but today was a big step.
For the airshow side of my brain, I needed to get my ears cleaned out. The USAF F22 Demo team did that for me today. I needed my eyes cleared out. There were colors everywhere. I needed to see young aviation fans, the next generation. And I did.
For the photographer side of my brain, happy to be in a target rich environment. Everything is interesting. I overpacked for the day. But who cares? Great to have the camera bag backpack on my back as I paid for my ticket and got the wristband.
As this was my first time to Battle Creek, I had no idea what to expect. This was a carnival with an air show as the main event. Lots of the carnival rides, carnival food and carnival smells all around. It was great! There were a few vendors, but none with airshow flavor. Their lo$$.
As I overpacked for the day, I also over-thought everything. My kit was the D500 with the 70-300 and the D850 with the 27-70. The D850 never made it out of the bag. There were no real close up opportunities. The airshow box was a little on the far side out. I needed all the reach I could get. As to overthinking, I started with a 3 stop filter to get the props right. I started at 1/120 second - and had no luck at all. I moved to 1/200 sec, still no luck. By the time I removed the filter and set the shutter to 1/500 - I started getting decent shots on a regular basis. That being aid, one of the best shot I have for the day was with the filter and the effect it gave was very interesting. Another post.
There is a good chance I'll go back tomorrow. I'd like to see the F22 again, but there is also a twilight and night airshow. I think that would be interesting. For kit, I'll go much lighter. I'll take the D850 and 70-200. Might need to crop some, and Gigapixel - but you have to see what it will do.
One of the opening acts was a jet powered sail plane. It is interesting when a jet engine is put on frames now originally designed for such power. This sail plane has a PBS TJ-100 jet engine to power it along. The jet engine itself, comes in at 43 pounds. Ha, when I worked on jet engines, I had tools that weighed that much.
Anyway, this is a good photo of the sail plane coming in low, with some other spectators in the foreground. I like the effect. My first, of hopefully many, air show post in a long time.
Perfect day, upper 70s and a bit of a breeze. Tomorrow looks to be just as nice. Will be hard to stay away.
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